Dirty Soda Subculture City Immersions

Dirty Soda Subculture City Immersions

// Elevator pitch:

The Sense Network identified an emergent opportunity. A subculture of soda hackers was growing in Salt Lake City. We helped a beverage innovation team gather inspiration and assess the opportunity by going deep into one city’s soda subculture.

// Client need: Cultural intelligence and new subcultures can provide early indicators of emerging opportunities. In soda-obsessed Salt Lake City a ‘dirty soda’ scene was growing. The soda client wanted to experience this culture first hand to understand whether this was an opportunity or a threat, and inspire their innovation team.

// SWW solution: We designed a two-day tour of hotspots which showcased how dirty soda was manifesting in local culture. The itinerary included a roundtable event with soda “super drinkers”, and meet-ups with local members of The Sense Network to find out about Salt Lake City’s broader food and drink scene.

// Added value: Innovation is as much about deciding when not to act, as it is making new ideas happen. The two-day immersion went wide enough and deep enough for the innovation team to conclude that whilst it was a fascinating and inspiring cultural phenomenon there was not a mass market opportunity to pursue.